Back to Blogging

So, If I have anybody left who still checks to see if I am blogging, I am back! I decided to take the summer off. I have not been busy every single second and could have found the time to blog, but just didn't feel like it. I was having such a great time just enjoying life. Something about sitting down at the computer almost every night to journal my day, sort of felt like homework to me! However, I started this blog to be a memory book of sorts for our family and my kids to have one day. SO I find that I NEED to get back to blogging.

So what did we do all summer?? As for our family, we didn't do the vacation thing this year. Instead, Charlie's family came out to visit us for the 4th of July week. We had a wonderful time visiting, eating, playing games, going to the beach, sight-seeing, etc...Here are some pics from the week.

Lobster Dinner rooftop

The McDonald Family in Palos Verdes

4th of July

Sarah was busy doing camps and Irish dance competitions. Sarah started her camps with a dance (all-in-one) camp. It was basically hip-hop, jazz, yoga, musical theater, cheerleading, and music everyday. She then did a couple of weeks of beach camp, an Irish dance camp, and soccer camp. Amidst all that, she continued to do her art classes, ice skating classes, and upped her Irish dance classes to 2 days a week. She also competed in 3 competitions this summer and did well in all of them. So a lazy summer she did not have, but a fun one for sure.

Sarah's 1st Feis

2nd Feis medals

Soccer Camp

Her team (U.S.A.) won the mock tournament

Lauren continued to do gymnastics and asked me weekly when she would start ballet up again. She is excited for next week! She spent most of her days at the summer camp at her daycare, however, we did pull her out some to do some fun activities. She had some play dates with friends, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Natural History Museum.

Ready for Pirate Fest at the Aquarium

Natural History Museum

Charlie has been a busy, busy worker bee. He has worked 2 bike races (Tour of France and Tour of Colorado) and has been hard at work prepping for his new gig as the producer of the weekly college football game on FX. This is the FOX network's 1st year of doing college football and Charlie was picked to be the producer. It is sort of a big deal and a big promotion for him. It has been a lot of hard work, but it has taken him all over the country for press and media days, he has had some fancy dinners out (which is the part I am jealous of), and has been on the phone or computer about 99% of the summer. A restful summer at the beach he did not have, but he loves what he does.

I have been busy carting kids around to play dates, camps and competitions, as you can imagine. On July 22nd, I became the primary care giver extraordinaire to our dog Peaches. She decided to jump off our tall bed and dislocated her hip and had to have emergency surgery to keep it back in place. I do love my sweet old dog to death, but a good patient she is not. She is supposed to rest and recuperate and she has done everything in her power to be nothing put active and disobedient. We are in the last 2 weeks of this healing period where I have to carry her up and down the stairs (we live in a 3 story house) and I am not allowed to let her jump on anything. (Mind you her favorite place to be is on the couch). I will be so glad when she is back to "normal".... And somewhere between being mom and dog nurse, I have been working at my new business of being a Stella & Dot Stylist. I LOVE this job and have had great success my first 3 months in business. Every month has been better than the one before. If you are not familiar with this product, you need to go check it out and fall in love with it like I did!

www.stelladot.com/tamaramcdonald

Poor Peaches

So there is our summer, busy, but fun! The fall looks to be even busier and even more fun. I love that we decided to move to Hermosa Beach. I think it is suiting us well.

I will be back to blogging more frequently now, in fact, I will post tomorrow about 1st Day of School and next week about our girls weekend to San Diego for Labor Day.

Home Sweet Home - By the Beach

It has been about a month and a half now since we have moved to California. In some ways it seems like we just got here and in others it feels like we have been here forever. I am glad to say it has been a smooth transition for everyone. I had a lot of people back home in Texas giving us a little grief about moving here and "Why would we do that?", "I would never make such a drastic move with young kids?", "You are going to leave your spacious, beautiful TX home to live in much smaller quarters in CA?", "Are the schools good? I have heard they are not.", etc...and so on and so on. So not that any of those people would be reading my blog, but in case you are...here is why we made the move, and yes we love it, and yes the kids love it, and even the dog is in seventh heaven.

What we love so far:
We live in a beach house - 2 blocks from the sand.
The house is not too big, but not too small, it is just right and has amazing views.
The weather (for the most part) has been great.
We can walk to restaurants, shops, ice cream in less than 5 minutes
We are close to old friends and have made new ones.
The girls love their schools and teachers (their schools are 2 blocks apart which makes drop off and pick up easy peasy).
The sunsets are intoxicating.
We are slowly falling into a regular schedule that will soon include seeing Charlie at lot more.
No pool or yard to take care of.









What we miss:
Family and Friends
Tex Mex and a combo plate that isn't $15.
Our great babysitters that DID NOT charge $15+/hour.

Peaches

You might be wondering (or might not) about the adorable little furry creature that is pictured above! I thought she deserved a post. She is a part of our family, after all! She is our sweet little cock-a-poo, Peaches! We happened upon Peaches in the summer of 2003 while we were living in Riverside, CA. We were following typical tradition and thought that before our baby came in the winter, we needed to get a dog to get a little practice taking care of something other than ourselves. We found Peaches at a dog rescue adoption at Pets Mart in Riverside. She had me at hello. She was sitting very sweetly in the back of her cage. She was not at all like the other dogs. They were all scrounging for your attention, but not Peaches. Perhaps she knew her cute look would just sell itself. It worked. The lady who had been taking care of her said she was just the sweetest, so I was sold.

It was estimated that she was about 2 when we bought her. So our guess is she is around 9 right now. We brought her home and we quickly found out that she was indeed already house broken! Yeah! We tried and tried to have her sleep in her crate downstairs, but that didn't work, so it wasn't long before she was up in our room in her own little bed. I vowed I would never actually have the dog in the bed, but when Charlie travels she always parks herself in his place. To be honest, I never correct this behavior. She is too sweet.

Now my husband, although he loves her, might have a different take on my lovable pooch. So..in all fairness, she is not perfect. She was diagnosed soon after we got her with separation anxiety! Really, that is a condition that dogs can have, I asked? Oh yes, and does she ever have it. We have had her now since 2003 and she still shakes when we are getting ready to leave the house. She runs around like a maniac when we return. She has to follow me around the house everywhere I go. She pooed in every room in the house one time when I left for the weekend. Charlie said she was a nutcase and wouldn't eat while I was gone. He calls it crazy, I call it love! :) She does like to swipe food from the girls and jump on the table when we leave the room. She does not like to get her paws wet and therefore is most stressed out when it rains or snows. She does, however, love walks, treats, tummy rubs, sun-bathing and more treats. She is great with the girls aside from the food swiping. She is a protector (barks at strangers, strange noises), but would not hurt a fly. She is my sweet Peaches and I can't imagine a better companion!

Peaches likes to be in photos...

Here she is in doggie heaven...asleep with her mommy on the couch.

Sleeping in Heavenly Peace

Since she is no longer allowed on the couch since we have leather now...she for some reason resorted to this one day.

Thanksgiving....Turkey carcass....Peaches on the prowl....

Oooh...maybe aunt Randi will give me a little taste??? For the record...she got plenty of turkey.

Checking out the snow...not sure if she is going to attempt it.